So I'm in the process of painstakingly and meticulously planning to get my very first snake. If I really really like them like I'm pretty sure I will then I plan to try my hand and hobby breeding on the small scale at first to see how I do. That being said I've obviously looked into how I would feed them. Thus how I find myself in the rat breeding thread here. But I digress, my main question for you all would be this. I've read conflicting opinions on whether it is safe or not to use kiln dried pine chips as rat substrate. Obviously using pine or cedar as a substrate for your snakes is a big no no as the oils can be toxic. Also there are those who would say that kiln drying doesn't remove enough of the oils from the pine chips so just go ahead and steer clear.... Well that got me thinking. The company I work for shreds a lot of paper and just throws it out. Would it be viable to just take it off their hands and use that as substrate for the rats? On that note could the same shredded paper be just as good for snakes as well? If so, I think I've found a way to cut my cost on bedding significantly. Though I'm not sure of the caveats of using paper with ink printed on it. I don't imagine it'd be too detrimental to either animals. It would be a mixture of regular inkjet printer ink and toner from laserjets, possibly even MICR toner from check printers.

Thoughts?